Bilingual

rxmatilda — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:13:00 GMT

My husband and I are American expats living in Shanghai where there are people from every country on the planet living and working. We often find ourselves in situations with our friends of various nationalities in social gatherings. Most of our acquaintences speak English but often there are a few people present who speak little or no English. The folks in the group who are bilingual usually take on the burden of translating. It can become very lively and fun in a group of Americans, Brits, Brazilians (who normally speak Portuguese), Germans, and Chinese all trying to stay on the same page. But we find it interesting to hear our statements repeated in different languages.

I would recommend that the bilingual folks take turns translating for the folks who only speak one language. I know I appreciate when someone does that for us. And yes, my husband and I have learned enough Mandarin that we are not completely "ugly" Americans.

Feliz Navidad!!

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